Final Push in Race to Serve Out Giffords's House Term

By FERNANDA SANTOS

Published: June 11, 2012

TUCSON -- The contest to fill the Congressional seat vacated by Gabrielle Giffords, the Democrat who survived an assassination attempt last year, has been widely referred to as the race for ''Gabby's seat.''

Her chosen successor, Ron Barber, has tried to step out from her shadow, though, saying at campaign events and in interviews that the race is, in fact, for ''the people's seat.''

Still, at Mr. Barber's last big rally on Saturday, Ms. Giffords figured as the guest of honor and the main attraction. She stepped onto the stage to boisterous cheers -- with her right arm in a brace, a slight limp and a big smile on her face.

Her husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, a retired astronaut, did the talking for her, saying Mr. Barber was ''the person who she knew could represent this community the way she did.'' The election is ''more than an ordinary election,'' he said, and is about ''closure for Gabby's career in Congress.''

On her way out, Ms. Giffords waved and said, ''Thank you, thank you very much,'' her only words to the crowd but enough to bring some people to tears.

The Barber rally -- a call to arms for volunteers to help the final get-out-the-vote push before the election on Tuesday -- had the feel of a victory party. Red, white and blue balloons adorned the stage at the historic Rialto Theater here, where four bands serenaded parents and children, activists circulated petitions to protect financing for state parks and college students dressed for a night out.

Meanwhile, Mr. Barber's Republican opponent, Jesse Kelly, a businessman and Marine Corps veteran, spent the day engaged in old-school politicking, urging voters to go to the polls in telephone calls and home visits. He also mobilized a team to pick up absentee ballots from those who had not yet mailed them in.

''Every vote is going to matter,'' Mr. Kelly's campaign spokesman, John Ellinwood, said in an interview.

Mr. Barber, 66, and Mr. Kelly, 40, are locked in a tight race in a swing district that in the same year voted to re-elect as governor Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, and Senator Jon Kyl, a conservative Republican. Republicans make up a majority of registered voters in the district, but independents, about 30 percent of the electorate, are a decisive constituency.

The winner of Tuesday's election will serve the roughly six months left in Ms. Giffords's second term representing Arizona's Eighth Congressional District; she resigned in January to focus on her recovery. Ms. Giffords was shot in the head during a meeting with constituents outside a supermarket here on Jan. 8 last year. Six people were killed and 12 others were wounded, among them Mr. Barber, who was one of her top aides.

Regardless of the results, Mr. Barber and Mr. Kelly have both said they would compete this fall for a full term in a newly created Congressional district where voters are more evenly distributed between Republicans and Democrats.

PHOTO: Ron Barber, left, a former aide to Gabrielle Giffords, and his Republican opponent, Jesse Kelly, during a debate last month. (PHOTOGRAPH BY KELLY PRESNELL/ARIZONA DAILY STAR, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)